Or a Canadian. Many of us speak some French, even if only the cereal-box variety. Definitely "Je suis", not "J'est", unless the lovely BelMarduk can enlighten us as to some idiom we sesquilinguals are missing.

Loosely translated:'The formula is a paradox and even, it seems, contradictory because she (it) identifies the subject, the me , which means the antithesis of the person, with his opposite << someone else >>, non defined, and a stranger.'

Je est un autre then will be : I is someone else . (Split personality? )

Still pretty heavy philosophic, but then:

'When he who hears doesn't understand him who speaks, and when he who speaks doesn't understand what he himself means - that is philosophy. -Voltaire

Quote:Can anyone translate this for me? Doesn't it mean "I (The Self?) is an Other"?

Yes, I can. If any of you give a damn then you must know who it is that is giving a swinging damn. Is it your lingual self? That outward self of sensory information who exchanges information and action with the external world or is the self who directs his fleshy robot into mindless actions?

If you forget a name who is it that recalls that name while you are busy interacting with the outside world? Huh?And who does the dreaming while you are asleep?

Think a bit. Are you merely a biological extention of a self that is you but doesn't speak in words but in biological imperatives?

Or is the we who are but operatives of our own sub-conscious who is the we?

I think maybe yes.

I hope that you all understand and that we, of the cognitive bent, do too.

I guess I know what you mean. We all have these two; the one who percieves, classifies and acts and the one who on a deeper level directs our actions and thinking more than we often would be willing to admit.The part that creates the dreams when we sleep or half sleep.(split personality was just a feeble joke, sorry).Seeing it in French and isolated from the rest of the poet's letter made it maybe a bigger mystery than it is.

Speaking of driving forces, I did not mean to make this post as my early morning good sense told me there are lots of things to be done and yet I do. Your post touching the essense of the little phrase.

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